RAPE IS NOT JUST ABOUT SEX

Though the legal definition, and our common sense understanding of the word ‘rape’ implies forced sexual activity by a man on a woman, on a mental or psychological level, rape involves a serious mental disorder, is not just about sex alone. For most normal human beings, sex is an intricate, inextricable part of the larger emotion of love. Sex is the coming together, the special, sacred union of two individuals, who have become one in body and soul. Sex is an activity where the partners express their love for each other by coming as physically and mentally close as it is possible to. Sex is an act of creation, where the union of two people gives rise to a new life here on earth. Sex is about becoming vulnerable; sex is about dropping our reservations, our inhibitions, and our sense of shyness and of being an introvert, and opening ourselves up completely and melting into another human being. Sex is an act of surrender, of let go for the sake of love. Sex is a divine activity, for it leads to creation and progress of the human race.

What about rape? Rape happens when a man forcibly dominates and sexually assaults a woman.

Recommended By Colombia

Where the act of sex and love are filled with tenderness, concern and sensitivity, the act of rape is a brutal one, filled with violence and anger. If sex is a creative act, rape is a destructive one. Although rape implies sex, in reality, sex and rape are at two ends of the spectrum. Consensual sex means that both partners give their acceptance to open themselves to one another, out of love and respect. Rape, on the other hand, has no such ingredients. No permissions are sought and it becomes a violation of an individual’s privacy and decency. It is an activity where one person forcibly takes away the freedom of another human being and inflicts tremendous physical, mental and psychological damage on her. While sex is about loving and caring for another individual, rape is about destroying the body and morale of a woman. Rape often happens for reasons which exclude love---out of a sense of anger, resentment, a need for revenge, as a punishment, to demean and insult someone, or as a plain pleasure seeking and sexual addiction.

Rape is a crime that is committed only by man; such a thing does not exist in the animal kingdom. Anybody who commits rape has to sink to a very low level which is below even that of animals. Why does someone indulge in rape? If it was only about sexual gratification, if it is only about satisfying one’s sexual desires, obviously, there are so many other ways to obtain it, without damaging another person, which are safe and without any legal implications. If it was only sex that the rapist wanted, he would not rape, but would find other easier, less complicated ways. Rape is not just about sex. The idea of forcible sex cannot arise in a normal mind, for a normal balanced mind has enough awareness, intelligence, love, sympathy, empathy, compassion and sensitivity to know another’s mind and feelings and to know the consequences of this act. The idea of rape can only arise in a diseased mind. Every adult male has the theoretical potential to commit rape, yet a very small percentage actually commits this crime. A rapist is a perverse individual, a sadist, who gets pleasure not so much in the short lived act of sex, but in the fact that he has done something unbelievable, something great, something out of this world. Rape is about violence, about domination, about causing hurt to the other, about destroying the other, about feeling a ‘high’ at someone else’s downfall. Finding pleasure and satisfaction in rape is also an ego problem, where certain male egos feel that this is the best way to show their superiority over the female.

Normal sex is like appreciating a rose---seeing it, touching it, smelling it and loving and experiencing its beauty. A rape is like tearing apart the rose flower, piece by piece and crushing it under one’s feet, and feeling proud that one has done something great, something out of this world.

Does legal punishment cure a rapist? Does it serve as a deterrent to others from indulging in rape? It seems highly unlikely, because the law only tries to put the fear of imprisonment into the rapist to prevent him and others from committing this crime. As the crimes against women rise every day, it seems obvious that legal measures alone are not the answer. A rapist may be otherwise sane in his day to day life, but when he commits the abominable act of rape, he is definitely insane. No sane, normal individual with an average consciousness can think of ever inflicting such a degree of physical and mental violence on another human being. What every rapist needs, along with imprisonment, is intense psychiatric treatment in a mental institution, where he spends the rest of his life, surgically or medically castrated, and under medication, chained to his bed. There is a need to change our laws and to create a new type of prison for the perpetrators of rape, which is a combination of a jail and a mental institution, where they can be put away for life.